Books: The Bee & the Rose

RILKE: MAN AND POET (373 pp.)—Nora Wydenbruck—Appleton -Century -Crofts ($4).

Sofia Rilke was annoyed. Had not the daughter of an Imperial Councillor, the wife of the Inspector of the Bohemian Northern Railway, a right to expect that her prayers for a daughter would be graciously granted? Yet here it was, a boy after all. In a foolish pet, Sofia decided to raise her son as a daughter, anyway. She put up his hair in braids, kept him in pretty frocks and dainty underwear, set him to playing with dolls and little girls, and called...

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